Microsoft bolsters XNA offering News
Xbox 360 PC News by Robert Purchese
Microsoft has announced the winners of its Dream-Build-Play competition, and handed out publishing contracts to four community XNA-built games.
The celebrations were held at Gamefest 2007, the Annual Game Technology Conference, where community development tools XNA took center stage.
First place was tied between two games: Blazing Birds by Canadian David Flook, an action-packed sports game based around badminton; and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai by American James Silva, a stylized platform game of revenge and mayhem. Both received the USD 10,000 prize money, Live Arcade deals, and various other goodies.
Runner-up spots were awarded to Swedish creator Steve Olofsoson and UK brain-box Daniel McGuire, for their entries Gravitron Ultra and Yo Ho Kablammo! respectively. This pair bagged USD 5,000 each, Live Arcade deals, and a bag full of other bits and pieces.
More than 4,500 people took part in the Dream-Build-Play contest in total, which was announced back in March as a way to bring public attention to Microsoft's XNA development tools. A full list of winners and accompanying screenshots can be found on the official website.
Chris Satchell, the Microsoft bigwig responsible for the software, also announced further key tactics in bringing the development tools into the public spotlight.
The first was news that professional and amateur XNA packages would be merged into one offering, XNA 2.0, which will feature full Xbox Live support - previously only licensed versions of the software could access it. In the future, paid-for packages will be granted access to extra plugin libraries.
"We made the decision to make one Game Studio. We think everyone should have access to the same tool," said Satchell. "There should be no friction as you move from accessible development to professional development."
It is expected to move the tool set one step closer to the homebrew adoption Microsoft expected when it officially launched the software back in late 2006. Those of you with an arty side will be pleased to note there is a new free version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI 6 to animate and create 3D models with for your XNA games, too.
Satchell also announced that we will be able to play around with some official Microsoft Game Studios content for our own creative purposes, effective immediately. This means screenshots, footage, and others bits from franchises like Halo, Forza Motorsport and Age of Empires are all up for grabs. Head over to the official site to read the full rules. Don't wind up behind bars.
The first professionally created game we'll see using the XNA software is Schizoid from Torpex Games, a co-op action game expected later this year.
"We truly believe that if you and a friend spend two minutes playing Schizoid, you are going to ignore food, drink, your job and your family and play until they load you up on a gurney and head to the hospital," said Bill Dugan, big boss at Torpex Games. "Schizoid is that rare game that comes along once every few years and we are very proud to make it our first release for Xbox live Arcade."
Pop over to the official Schizoid website for a look at how it is shaping up.
Are you excited about Yo-Ho Kablammo! on Xbox 360?
View Eurogamer readers most anticipated games
Related Games
Schizoid
Blazing Birds
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
Gravitron Ultra
Yo-Ho Kablammo!
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Comments: 1-24 of 24 in total
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Yea except it's not actually possible for anyone in the community to get a game published without going through a competition style event.
XNA has effectively become a great tool set with no teeth. Microsoft:"Hey look we give you the ability to do all this stuff with the XBos and PC" Indie Dev:"Great so how do I make some money from my creation" Microsoft:"Oh you need to have a publishing agreement with us and pass certification" Indie Dev:"But that costs tens of thousands for the dev kit and stuff and you ignore anyone who doesn't already have a publishing deal anyway!" Microsoft:"Not my problem mate" So the point of XNA is what exactly? Academia and creating demos for job interviews |
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I didn't win a sausage =o( I would have liked a sausage.
In other news, the Express and Professional versions are to be merged in XNA 2.0 and it will support Xbox Live. Not bad for free, eh? I can't wait. @penhalion: And what else is available that does that? As far as I'm aware there is nothing available for free which will allow you to develop games and have them published... The whole point of XNA Express wasn't to allow indie devs to get their games published, that's for what would be XNA Professional (and it would be a LOT cheaper than buying a full dev kit). XNA Express is for home developers and the publishing thing was just a sweetner for the competition. That's all.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 14/08/07 @ 12:12
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Psychotext
14/08/07 @ 11:11
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@penhalion: For the moment yes, but what's stopping publishers other than Microsoft picking up these games?
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More than 4,500 people took part in the Dream-Build-Play contest in total, which was announced back in March as a way to bring public attention to Microsoft's XNA development tools.
What is this The X-factor? lolz X-factor. For the moment yes, but what's stopping publishers other than Microsoft picking up these games? Why would a Publisher pick a dev up to make a XBLA game when they could probably divert tens of thier hundreds of their own staff to make XBLA games.
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most recently on 14/08/07 @ 12:19
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@redneon and Psychotext
Steroyd said it best. There is zero insentive for any publisher to pick up indie stuff. It's always been down to the indies themselves to get their work out there to the general public. Currently they can't do this on the 360 using the very tools microsoft just spent a whole conference trying to sell to them! There is no way to get your game out there or tap into the 360 user base. As a consequence of this many unique games will simply not make it to 360 at all. Instead indies may turn to Nintendo's WiiWare offering or Sony may come up with a better plan such as the fabled youtube of games. All it would take on their part is a dev kit and a space on the playstation network. Splitting revenue between the dev and Sony. EDIT: For anyone who was/is at the gamefest. A very good point was made during the last session. Someone asked why microsoft had few external partners willing to provide tools for XNA. Another person in the audience then casually mentioned that it's because there is zero chance to make any money on the games without an all too rare publishing deal. The risk isn't worth their while is the upshot.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 14/08/07 @ 12:34
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Schizoid is about to come out, I believe.
http://creators.xna.com/Headlines/homepa... XNA won't start paying dividends until next year, but I'm certain they're coming. There's just no easy equivalent for any of the other consoles, and that's to Microsoft's benefit.
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most recently on 14/08/07 @ 12:58
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This is kinda cool, but it'd be so much better if every game that was entered, whether it won anything or not, was up for download. Isn't that the point of user-created content?
Not if it crashes your Xbox every few minutes no! ;-) Real games would have to go through a lengthy testing process before they'd be allowed near anyone's console. Not really worth it for some low quality games is it? @penhalion I don't work in the games industry but I suspect that you're kind of summing up the whole problem with it - it's difficult for new ideas to be heard and have money invested into them. Still if this XNA stuff acts as a foot in the door for future developers then that's no bad thing is it? |
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"So the point of XNA is what exactly? Academia and creating demos for job interviews "
There will be an XNA "player" on 360 in the (near) future (hence the choice for managed code so MS knows not a lot can go wro,ng with XNA games doing stuff they are not allowed to do). So hopefully next year XNA games (in binary state) will be available via a new managed code player. That has always been the plan behind XNA. Also right now you can share your creation with other XNA people, making money with your creation however is indeed not that easy ;)
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most recently on 14/08/07 @ 13:05
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Crea while Sony doesn't have a XNA equivalent they seem to be snapping up indie devs left and right they have the creators of flow on a multi-game contract, they're getting echochrome guy to do a game, Everybody's Shooter was made by one guy I believe and even Media Molecules LBP if you classify MM as an indie dev.
Don't know if it's harder or easier to knock on Sony's door but there are a good number of mini devs launching original/own games on the service. |
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Yeah, Net Yaroze cost around $700 at the time, and was really more of a cut-down devkit - you didn't get the nice API or any particular support from Sony that you get with XNA and all its sample code and well designed API. XNA is something else entirely, it's clearly benefitting from API elements that MS has developed over the years with the original Xbox and the 360. It's a far more complete 'solution', to use that horrible word - you have access to cheap devkit ($100 sub to creator club), you have an API that abstracts a lot of the tedious stuff (font rendering, content processing, audio) and allows extraordinarily easy ports between the 360 and the PC. You also get to use a good, free IDE (Game Studio Express).
Net Yaroze and XNA are not analagous, is what I'm clumsily getting at. Net Yaroze also suffered because the environment for casual gaming was not quite there - no Live framework, less broadband etc, so it really was restricted to hobbyists. I do think MS needs to perhaps work a little on the perception that Live Arcade is an impossible goal for indie devs, because I don't think it is. MS I'm sure would love to release anything that meets its quality bar. *Edit* Just to say I don't really know anything at all about Sony platform 'accessibility', so probably not best placed to comment :)
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most recently on 14/08/07 @ 13:21
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I don't understand why everyone's going on about marketing the products created using XNA. XNA is for hobbyists, just as Net Yaroze was. It isn't intended to be a platform for which anyone can publish their games and make money. Otherwise we'd have a billion cock and ball shooter clones (providing they can get them through MS Pre-cert.).
The only difference between coding in XNA than any other set of libraries (programming language aside) such as DirectX is that it just happens to have a cut down implementation on the 360. Indie devs have always had a hard time trying to get a product they wish to publish recognised. But that's irrespective of the platform they use to make it. XNA is just another tool out there which you can use. |
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@Steroyd;
"Why would a Publisher pick a dev up to make a XBLA game when they could probably divert tens of thier hundreds of their own staff to make XBLA games." Probably the same reasons Sony are "snapping up indie devs". Potential. The guys that made flow made it in Flash. It could easily have been made with xna if it was around at the time they were making it. |
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insane_cobra
14/08/07 @ 12:35
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@redneon
Exactly. XNA is not a money-making tool, it's supposed to educate people and involve more of them in active game development. It's definitely a positive initiative and I don't see how anyone but fanboys could try to spin it as something worthless or even negative. Oh, and it's not exactly the same as other game developing toolkits, but I'm not getting into all that now.
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most recently on 14/08/07 @ 13:37
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@redneon
That's incorrect. Gamefest has just proven that XNA is not in any way shape or form aimed just at hobbyists. It's actually aimed at indies, academics and professional developers. Creators club is definitely aimed at developers and Microsoft themselves have said this. In many ways that makes things worse because hobbyists get the worst end of the deal all round. Without a 100 dollar creators club membership, they can't even get their stuff onto an XBox 360 period. This is the whole point people are trying to make. It's not possible to use the blasted thing in a meaningful way due to the restrictions placed on it. You either have to create a windows game and distribute it, in which case there isn't much point writing any console style features into it or write it on 360 and have no-one see it! Oh you could put up a few youtube videos and throw your hard work about for free to whoever will listen but, that's not putting food on the table and it isn't inspiring anyone to waste any time creating andthing meaningful either. EDIT: Someone mentioned Schizoid. Apparently that was "Special" and microsoft used their influence and cash to provide the team with rediculous amounts fo help and special "not available to the general public" libraries in order to add acheivements and other essential stuff needed for an arcade release. This was all revealed at yesterdays closing session of gamefest day1. It was revealed in the slides and again when someone asked about why it wasn't possible to go this route for other developers.
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most recently on 14/08/07 @ 13:44
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@insane_cobra: I can't see what's different about it. A toolkit is just a set of libraries which is what XNA is. It doesn't offer as much as DirectX yet because it's not very old but it's more than just a rendering language like OpenGL. For example, it's got built in classes to deal with vectors, matrices, quaternions, bounding shapes, shaders, profiling classes... and that's not including the content pipeline.
Maybe it's because I'm a professional game developer that I'm blinkered but what Microsoft are offering for free in XNA is way more than anyone else ever has considering that it has (mostly) 360 support. |
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@penhalion: Sorry, I should have elaborated. XNA Express (the only XNA that's currently available) is only intended for hobbyists. XNA Professional will be for real indie devs and I'm sure that by that time Microsoft will have a much easier route to market. I'm not sure how it's going to work now they're due to merge the two, however.
The reason I get frustrated is because no-one else is doing this but as soon as MS tries to do it they get lambasted. I can't imagine the amount of time and effort they've put it to implementing all of these classes which anyone can get, along with an IDE, for free! Ok, so you have to pay £60 to get your game on your own console and that is a little steep, but it's not like there's a million other companies allowing you to do anything else like this. There aren't any, to my knowledge. |
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kangarootoo
14/08/07 @ 13:24
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@penhalion
You want the moon on a stick, yesterday. This is better than nothing, and its one of the early steps for a service that is bound to develop further. Truth is, making games costs money. MS can't just allow anyone to stroll up with a game and have it published on the platform. Either quality would slump, or they would be paying everyone's submission and QA costs. MS aren't a charity you know. An indie with no publisher and no money shouldn't really expect to be able to release games. No other business runs that why, so no one should expect games dev to be any different. As for, "There is zero insentive for any publisher to pick up indie stuff". Thats just not true. There are publishers who specialise in doing just that. The incentive is there same as its always been, and its "profits". Not the huge profits a blockbuster may acrue, but then titles like that need a huge investment, which a smaller publisher may not be able to provide. There are plenty of indies making money out there working on small projects, being funded by publishers who specialise in exactly that low investment end of the dev market. Its not a very stable part of the market at times, but thats games dev for you. |
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themardygit
14/08/07 @ 14:46
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Its great news to here that Canalside Studios' (huddersfield Uni's in house studio) Yo ho Kablammo came second! well done guys, make all us hudds students proud!!!
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InternetRed
15/08/07 @ 01:04
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Most of those games look fun! Ok the first prize one, the screens look a little static, but still.
I would definitely trial each of those games, and would end up buying at least half of them, if they were bug-tested and put on live. This is the kind of thing i would pay for. Not rehashes of ancient games, but new, unique, indie-flavoured stuff. |
Comments: 1-24 of 24 in total
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